22 CONTROL SERIES NO. 135 



TYPE AND VARIETY STUDIES OF VEGETABLES 



Conducted by the Department of Olericulture 



W. H. Lachman, Assistant Research Professor 



J. Fred Knowles, Jr., Student Assistant 



Tests are conducted by the Experiment Station each year to determine the 

 trueness to type of various kinds of vegetable seeds which are oflfered for sale 

 by the seedsmen and retailers in this state. The aim of this work has been to 

 discourage the distrbution of unfit or worthless seed. Samples of seed of ruta- 

 bagas, turnips, carrots, radishes, beets, spinach, beans and sweet corn were 

 purchased by the State Inspectors and sent to the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Experiment Station at Amherst, where the Department of Olericulture planted 

 the seed in field test plots in order to compare plant characteristics with the 

 labeled variety name. The trials of spinach were a failure due to adverse grow- 

 ing conditions ; hence results are not recorded in this report. 



Yield records were not taken because of the necessity of using small plots 

 and also because replication of the plantings was not feasible due to the large 

 number of strains and varieties that were in the test. Conformity to type has 

 been the measure of comparison in these tests and individual plants have been 

 called off-type when they could not be classified in a group of plants ranging 

 fairly close to the type generally accepted as typical for the particular variety 

 under consideration. 



In studying the performance records it becomes evident that most of the 

 stocks were true to name and most of them appeared to be highly productive. 

 In a few instances it appeared that the variety had been misnamed or misrep- 

 resented but usually these were reasonably good substitutions. A number of the 

 rutabagas were mixed with turnips and variation in tassel color of sweet corn 

 indicates that more attention should be paid to detasseling in the production fields 

 of hybrids. The quality of the beet stocks has been improving for several years, 

 and carrots were also good. It was evident that a few cases of outright mis- 

 representation among the various stocks had taken place. It appears that much 

 of this trouble results from some retailers, who are careless or do not realize 

 the importance of not mixing the seed of various strains of vegetables. 



